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Drawing Straws
"Drawing Straws" is the tenth episode of Season 4, it premiered August 24, 2014. Plot Synopsis Tom and the remnants of the 2nd Mass learn to pilot a Beamer as part of their plan to destroy the Espheni Power Core, and the group draws straws to see who will embark on the dangerous mission. The threat of death hanging over everyone triggers long-simmering confrontations between many of our main characters, ultimately bringing the 2nd Mass closer together. Plot Tom finds himself at odds with everyone, including his own family as he tries to dictate who will go on the mission to the moon to destroy the enemy power core. Everyone wants a fair shot at going and possibly saving the entire human race. Matt manages to pop open a hidden panel on the beamer which turns out to be the control panel for the flight controls. While trying to access the Espheni communications channel in the Beamer, Cochise taps into a radio message in Spanish which Anthony is able to translate. Anthony later reads the translated message to everyone: all of the Ghettos are being emptied and have been already in Spain, Italy and Morocco. The people are being taken for processing and the Espheni have a new horrible weapon that is unstoppable and is used to capture human fugitives. The message ends with the man telling anyone who's listening to go into hiding as there is no chance of winning the fight now and they are the last humans on planet Earth. Everyone is left somber by the news. Discussing the message, Weaver states he believes it to be real as it was broadcast on a frequency of 1776 megahertz, or American Independence. Maggie proposes attacking all the Espheni Ghettos they can find and rescuing what people are left to build their numbers back up while Pope doesn't like the idea of sitting around and doing nothing and Elise suggests they should just do as the message suggests and find a place to hide. Tom however is adamant in continuing their plan to attack the Espheni power core, believing that taking it and the Espheni technology out is their only chance. While everyone thinks the plan to be rash and desperate at this point, Tom tells them that he'd rather go down fighting than hiding and everyone finally agrees to try. As the mission is prepared, trouble arises when an Espheni defense mechanism destroys the Volm communicator being used to hack the ship and pilot it. Cochise believes that once the Beamer is fully activated, it will reject all Volm presence, including him. This would make it extremely dangerous for him to go on the mission, leaving them without their expert in Espheni technology and no way to pilot the ship to the Moon. However, Cochise suggests an alternative: if they can manually pilot the ship above the interference of the Earth's atmosphere, the ship may lock onto the homing beacon on the Moon on its own and fly itself there. A later diagnostic confirms Cochise's theory. As a result, the group sets out to figure out the ship's controls. Comparing it to an airplane rather than a magic carpet, they figure there are four main controls, thrust, pitch, yaw and roll and they just need to figure out thrust and roll as Matt already figured out pitch and yaw. Through trial and error, Tom and Dingaan locate thrust, nearly killing Cochise in the process, but are unable to find roll. As they just need to get the ship above the atmosphere, it is decided that this is not important and they then set out trying to decide who will pilot the ship. It is decided by popular vote that everyone will put their name into a drawing where 2 will be picked to go on this mission. Tom only agrees to it after being outvoted by everyone. Matt wants to put his name in, since it was his idea but Tom refuses with a rather funny line, “You have to be 15 to fly an alien space ship and you don’t have your learners permit yet.” Weaver catches Pope trying to take names out of the draw, because he wants to be the one to go. After everything he has lost, after everyone who has died, he wants to make a difference. Despite the fact that it was Maggie who kissed Ben first, Hal will not forgive his brother, even after Ben goes to him to try to explain. Later once the drawing of names occurs and Ben is picked first. Hal realizes he may never see his brother again. Tom of course finds a way to fix the drawing and he is the second person to go. It was his son who was picked to go, so it seems only fitting Tom would go with him. Later on the ship, Maggie goes on board to say goodbye to Ben and this time, Ben goes in for the kiss, and Hal sees it. Just as they are preparing the ship for takeoff Ben finds Hal on board and Hal finally tells him that he forgives him and that Maggie cannot be told who to love, that’s up to her. Ben tries to explain that he does in fact have feelings for her and he can’t help it. However, he does try to help Hal by telling him Maggie doesn’t have those same feelings but he doesn’t care at this point. Lexi wakes from a nightmare where Ben appears to have been mutated through the human skitterization process, much to Lexi’s horror. The monk continues to train her to hone her abilities as she is able to de-materialize a tree and control gravity. Later she overhears another “mordor-style” conversation between the 2 espheni brothers and finds out that they are not interested in peace and that the Monk is ordered to kill her. In their last training session, just before the Monk attempts to kill Lexi, she de-materializes him, breaking free of his control. Everyone says their goodbyes to Ben and Tom as they get ready to take off, but suddenly alarms go off as a squad of beamers are seen heading towards the town. Everyone runs into position to start shooting but before they can shoot, suddenly all the beamers start exploding in mid-air. Lexi appears from behind the rubble, having returned to them, having saved them. Other Cast Co-Starring * Christie Burke as Elise * Mark Gibbon as Scorch * Robert Clotworthy as The Monk Uncredited * Jon Johnson as Jon * D Harlan Cutshall as Butterfield * Nico Amoroso as Nico * Zack Daniels as Zack Deaths *The Monk Significant Events *On a looped radio message, it is mentioned that several locations including, Spain, Italy and Morocco are near extinction. Its also mentioned that the Espheni have a new weapon to capture humans and its unstoppable. The man believes that humanity is on the verge of losing and it is impossible to win. *Despite receiving a message that states that humanity is on the verge of extinction and to hide, Tom decides to continue with his plan to attack the Espheni power core and convinces everyone else to join in by telling them he'd rather go down fighting than running. *The Espheni decided to have Lexi killed. *Lexi kills The Monk and returns to her human parents, saving the 2nd Mass from a Beamer attack. *Ben Mason & Tom Mason are chosen to fly the Beamer. *Hal forgives Ben, who comes clean about his feelings for Maggie. *The name of the Espheni means of communication is revealed. Tom's History Lessons Matt refers to Joan of Arc when Tom says he's too young to go on the mission. Trivia and Outside References *This is the first episode 10 in Falling Skies not to be a season finale. *Pope refers to the beamer as the Millennium Falcon. *Drawing Straws is a selection method that is used by a group to choose one member of the group to perform a task after none has volunteered for it. The same practice can be used also to choose one of several volunteers, should an agreement not be reached. Category:Season 4 Category:Episodes Category:Season 4 Episodes